TiVo prepping nex generation DVRs

If you fill up drives with recordings and you for some reason drop cable, are you still able to view the recordings without a Cable Card?

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A CableCard's only functions are to provide a channel map and decrypt a broadcast video stream for viewing or recording. Once the video has been recorded on your Tivo, a CableCard is not needed for playback.

I can't decide if I need 3TB or not. my current Elite is about 50% full and has a 2TB drive, so it would seem that 1TB is right about my limit. But I've had times when it's been up in the 60s so I really could use more space. But $200 extra for the upgrade is a bit steep.

I've never been higher than 32% usage on my XL4. Generally I always try to watch enough to get below 30% if it's ever above that level, and honestly I could drop episodes from at least 2 series I probably won't end up watching at all, but I haven't really made that decision yet, so that "30%" is artificially higher than it really needs to be. I chose the Pro. It's nice not getting even close to the limit, no matter what.

It's always a pain to upgrade later, especially if there's any number of accumulated recordings left to watch, and after having tried the WD extenders on my Series 3's originally, I'll never go with external drive solutions on TiVo receivers again.

At one point I was at like 92% on mine, but I had shows were I had 2+ seasons I had never watched. I finally deleted a bunch of those and got down to about 60%. I like to watch things in blocks, so I tend to build up shows like this. I also like to record movies on a whim even if I never end up watching them. If I only had 1TB I'd have to be much more careful about doing that. With 3TB I could do it even more and never worry about it again.

If I replaced my 3 2-tuner TiVos(1 THD w/1TB drive, 2 Premieres w/stock 320GB drives) 1TB would not be enough while 3TB would probably be OK. 2TB might even be sufficient. I would love to use my PC as extra storage but for a number of reasons, the prime one being the CC problem, that is not a viable option.

If I replaced my 3 2-tuner TiVos(1 THD w/1TB drive, 2 Premieres w/stock 320GB drives) 1TB would not be enough while 3TB would probably be OK. 2TB might even be sufficient. I would love to use my PC as extra storage but for a number of reasons, the prime one being the CC problem, that is not a viable option.

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You can offload shows to your PC with PyTiVo for archiving. I do that with a lot of Sporting Events that I may want to see again some day, but don't want them taking up space on my TiVo.

But if your cable company protects all it's channels via CCI bit then that's not an option. Almost all Time Warner and a few Cox and Comcast areas do that. The only things they leave unprotected are the broadcast channels because they are not allowed to protect those by law.

But if your cable company protects all it's channels via CCI bit then that's not an option. Almost all Time Warner and a few Cox and Comcast areas do that. The only things they leave unprotected are the broadcast channels because they are not allowed to protect those by law.

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Ah. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. Comcast blocks some transfers in my area, but not most. Usually only PPV's or Pay Channels like HBO.

We use to be wide open here. I could transfer anything, even premium channels. Then about a year ago they switched to blocking just the Premium channels. Hopefully they don't take a queue from TW and start blocking them all or TTG will become completely useless to me.

I thought the rule was that they are required to offer self installs of CableCARDs if they offer self installs of any other equipment. If they don't offer any self installs then I think they are still allowed to require a truck roll. Also I think there are still a few small cable companies with exemptions. TiVo is likely just covering their bases.

But if your cable company protects all it's channels via CCI bit then that's not an option. Almost all Time Warner and a few Cox and Comcast areas do that. The only things they leave unprotected are the broadcast channels because they are not allowed to protect those by law.

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The CC problem I was referring to is "Closed Captions", not "Copy Control".

We use to be wide open here. I could transfer anything, even premium channels. Then about a year ago they switched to blocking just the Premium channels. Hopefully they don't take a queue from TW and start blocking them all or TTG will become completely useless to me.

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I don't understand why TW is blocking everything anyway. I just figured they didn't know how to implement it correctly and took the easier route of just blocking everything. Have they ever said why? That would make MRV pretty much useless too.

I don't understand why TW is blocking everything anyway. I just figured they didn't know how to implement it correctly and took the easier route of just blocking everything. Have they ever said why? That would make MRV pretty much useless too.

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They wont admit it but I think they do it on purpose to hinder TiVos and CableCARD usage in general. It's no secret they don't like CableCARDs and do the bare minimum required to support them. By blocking all the channels like this they render one of the benefits of TiVo useless and lessen it's appeal.